Standing in front of dozens of wide-eyed children at the Samuel Adams Elementary School in East Boston yesterday morning, Governor Deval Patrick described how he was constantly bullied out of his lunch money as a 7-year-old.
The governor related his experiences growing up on Chicago's impoverished South Side as he announced $5.1 million in antiviolence grants that will be distributed statewide.
The funds will be given to organizations working to curb crime and violence, many of them focused on helping children and teens. Among recipients are the Hyde Square Task Force in Jamaica Plain and the Henry Lee Community Center in Worcester.
"The violence that we are seeing on our streets must end, and we know that it will take more than law enforcement to create a lasting peace," Patrick said in a statement. "These grants underscore our belief that violence is both a public safety problem and a public health problem."
The grants come from the state's Department of Public Health, which will award $1.6 million, and the Edward J. Byrne Memorial Grant, a federal program, which will award $3.5 million. Organizations based in Boston will receive a total of about $1.7 million. The Old Colony YMCA in Brockton received the largest grant, $170,000.
"There were hundreds of worthy applicants . . . a handful we were able to support," Patrick said. He added that the grants are part of a comprehensive public safety initiative that includes putting more police on the streets.
Patrick campaigned just over a year ago on a platform that included a proposal to put an additional 1,000 police officers on the streets. To date, his administration has put 250 officers on the streets.
But the governor has come under criticism in some Boston neighborhoods for a perceived lack of immediate response to a handful of violent episodes. The family of a 13-year-old Dorchester boy questioned why the governor didn't show up last October in the hours after the boy was shot while walking home.
Cindy Roy, Patrick's spokeswoman, said the governor did eventually meet with the family and has continued to keep in touch with the boy's mother.
Patrick made his comments about three hours after an 18-year-old West Roxbury high school student was stabbed twice in the back at the Forest Hills T Stop. The victim was listed in stable condition, and Transit Police said the stabbing was not a random act.
At the Samuel Adams Elementary School yesterday, a program funded by the Legislature this year, PEACEZONE, was being celebrated in song and dance, performed by the students as Patrick sat and watched.
A first-grade class of 17 students took the stage and sang, "I Like the Colors of Fall," while teachers, dressed in black and red, sat alongside their students and parents took pictures from the edges of the auditorium.
The PEACEZONE program is used in elementary schools in Boston neighborhoods that are considered hot zones for community violence. It teaches students social skills to help them avert potentially violent situations and also to help them cope with trauma and loss.
